The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing a glass panel.
A conventional process for fabricating a glass panel such as a vacuum heat-insulating glass panel or a plasma display panel (hereinafter abbreviated to PDP) comprises the step of sealing a glass panel assembly constructed from two glass plates, one with an exhaust pipe thereto, which are joined together by a jig such as a clip with a sealant applied to the periphery of one or the other of the opposing surfaces of the two glass plates, the step of evacuating the interior of the sealed glass panel through the exhaust pipe and the step of cutting and sealing up the exhaust pipe.
In the sealing step, the glass panel assembly is loaded into a batch-type sealing furnace and heated to a predetermined temperature (sealing temperature) to seal the two glass plates which are thus fabricated into a glass panel. In the evacuating step, many such glass panels, each with the exhaust pipe attached thereto, are loaded into a batch-type evacuating furnace and, while heating the glass panels at a predetermined temperature (evacuating temperature), an evacuating apparatus connected to the exhaust pipe is driven to evacuate the interior of the glass plate, and finally the exhaust pipe is sealed up and cut to complete the fabrication of the glass panel.
In particular, in the fabrication process of the PDP, the evacuating step is followed by the step of filling a discharge gas into the glass panel to a predetermined pressure (400 to 600 Torr), after which the exhaust pipe is sealed up and cut.
However, since the sealing step and the evacuating step are batch processes separately performed in special-purpose furnaces, raising and lowering the furnace temperature is repeated for each process, the resulting problem being that not only thermal efficiency is low but productivity also decreases enormously.